Author
Topic: C5 Kick starter please! (Read 2450 times)

Had a good example of why this is needed. Came out from work tonight and the estart inexplicably decided to not work. Everything checked out except that. Ended up bump starting the bike, but would have been alot easier with a kicker.

Got home, jiggled some wires, and it fixed itself, but I hope the engineers are listening...

I would like the kick start too, not because its really necessary, but it would be really cool to have a kick start bike - not to many of them around these days, and it would be cool to retain that retro feel of the C5. I dont know what the inside looks like on the UCE, but maybe there will be a kit one day?!

I would purchase a kicker conversion kit in a heartbeat! They did some great things with with retro design of the C5. I think they should have put a kicker on the US Models, I also think it should have come out with a 7 inch headlight and a little more scoop to the seat pan. I can change out the Headlight and the seat pan in time.

yea, agreed a kick starter is needed. I think a 7" headlight would be cool, but I don't think there dot approved.redesigned seat would be cool. 19" wheel, redesigned swing arm, etc. etc. I guess it all comes down to priority's and money. I think RE, before they put out the next years model, A survey taken, and people suggest in what priority they want any given feature. Then RE could try to fit into their budget, per bike, What is doable.Maybe a G-5 motor fits in a C-5 frame with some small adjustments at the factory Jig? Then no need for internal motor work. Whats the difference in cost between a 18" wheel and a 19" wheel? Pretty negligible I would think, per bike that is. spread out over 5000 bikes, it makes a big difference. A cost like that, passed on to each customer, per bike, is no big deal.

I have the 2009 G5 and had problems with the starter solenoid,it was about two months before I got it fixed.I was quite happy kicking over.two kicks cold, one kick warm,I,m sure I would have had problems bump starting, I would have thought it was important to fit one on the C5 during manufacture

Yah, I read that somewheres about omitting it intentionally. I guess in India the lack of the kicker says quality to the folks who live there. But here in the States there is quite a push to retro vehicles. Ford and Chevy have been capitalizing on it since Chrysler come out with eh PT Cruiser a few years back. I think they could enhance its Retro value with the kicker, at least here. There are other differences just for the US Market so why not a kicker. Hopefully they are listening 'cause we are buying...

No, my local dealer here in Washington state said that it would require a major rebuild to do the job ie, lots of different gears.

I tried to e-mail RE in India a while back and got a big run around. .

Having been in manufacturing back in the day here is what I think ( and this is MO only ). A lot of parts have to be subed out, so contracts are made for X number of parts for so many mouths or years. The subs must be paid no matter what. If you make a mistake you don't throw the parts out . The boss comes in and says use em up.

If you are waiting for a US C-5 with a kick I think you will be waiting a long time.

+1 to RE, on the kickstart C5. I understand the whole thing about keeping manufacturing simple, however if the G5 gets the kickstart this should be very easily solved for the C5. I hope RE is paying attention to it's US customer wants, I want to see a deluxe version C5 too!